Just saw that the Miami Canes beat the Marlins in a Spring Training exhibition game. Did we ever play the Astros and beat them? Anyone else? Curious
we play an allumni team ever year that always has a few major leaguers but thats about it. I dont know the overall record but the current team won this year. I dont think we've ever played an actual major league team.
I know the old New York Giants used Alex Box (before it was named that) for spring training in either 1938 or 1939, and LSU played some exhibitions with them, but I'm not sure of the outcome. Also, I don't have a media guide handy, but it seems like LSU might have played some exhibition games w/ the White Sox in the early part of the century.
This is from the 2005 LSU Baseball Media Guide: LSU coaches in the early years supplemented their collegiate schedules with competition against professional opponents. This gave the Tigers excellent chances to gain experience, but rare chances for victory. Among the Tigers' most noteworthy losses was a 17-7 defeat at the hands of the Chicago White Sox in 1925. Other pro opponents included the Detroit, Cleveland, New York and St. Louis major league teams, Indianapolis of the American Association, Nashville and New Orleans of the Southern Association, plus several teams from Louisiana's celebrated Class "C" Evangeline League.
A couple of times in the mid-70s the Astros and Rangers played Spring Training games at Alex Box - against each other. I remember Gaylord Perry growling at some kids who had climbed on top of the Rangers' dugout ("Hey, geddown from there!") and also remember Bert Campaneris stealing home in one of the games.
My father played baseball at LSU right during the early years of the World War II. I called him and asked this question about playing a ML team. He said he thought LSU did prior to the 40's, especially when the Indians were using the stadium for Spring Training. During his days however, he said that they (LSU) had to scrounge around for games so they played many semi-pro teams from military installations like Selma Field, Ft. Polk, Algiers Naval Air Station...etc. He did say that even though a team like the one from Selma Field was classified as a semi-pro team they had six Major Leaguers in the starting lineup. Dad said they literally had to play as many of these type of games that they could in order to fill the schedule. He played until he was drafted into the Navy and became a corps man was lucky enough to be stationed stateside. Had orders to ship out with a Marine unit when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.